Letters: Handle with care

From
ROGER BURROWS

Feline distemper in lions (This Week, 11 June) is not the first exotic
virus normally associated with domestic animals to suddenly emerge in Serengeti
wildlife. Between 1985 and 1987 antibodies to canine parvovirus were found
in serum samples from a pack of an endangered species, the African wild
dog (Lycaon pictus), whose home range covered the area in which the lions
are now dying.

Also in the same area from 1988 to 1990 antibodies to rabies were found
in serum samples taken from healthy non-vaccinated wild dogs which had probably
survived exposure to the virus. Rabies is virtually absent in …